Paddy Hobson

We are looking for an experienced Engineer/Scientist to join a cutting-edge robotics team in Zurich, focused on humanoid manipulation through state-of-the-art AI. You will contribute to developing and deploying learning-based controllers to enable robots to interact intelligently, reliably, and flexibly with complex environments. This role is deeply hands-on with real robot hardware, leveraging your expertise across vision-language-action (VLA) models, diffusion models, reinforcement learning, and dexterous manipulation. What we’re looking for:PhD or Master's in Robotics, AI, or related fieldsStrong expertise in learning-based dexterous manipulation (multi-fingered grasping, task-oriented manipulation)Practical experience with running real-time controllers on robotic hardwareDeep knowledge of diffusion models, transformers, CVAEs, normalizing flowsExperience working with ROS, PyTorch, and PythonFamiliarity with vision-language models (VLA/VLMs/LLMs) for robotic planning or failure detectionBonus: experience with synthetic data generation, simulation environments, teleoperation systemsWhy this role?Join a high-calibre team (ex-ETH / ex-NVIDIA founders) backed by significant investment (Seed + Series A secured)Work at the intersection of simulation, reinforcement learning, and robotics hardwareContribute to next-generation humanoid robots without reliance on traditional imitation learning paradigmsIf you’re passionate about building more intelligent robots through cutting-edge AI and want to work in a fast-moving, well-resourced environment, we’d love to hear from you.